Decision due on new design for Yates’s site

Fresh proposals for a £10m hotel and restaurant on the site of the former Yates’s Wine Lodge in Blackpool are earmarked for approval.

Amended plans are due before Blackpool Council’s planning committee next Tuesday after the original application by Premier Inn was refused in May.

Councillors ruled the scheme for a 150-bedroom six-storey hotel with a Brewers Fayre restaurant on the ground floor was overbearing, and would increase pressure on town centre parking.

Developers came back with revised plans which have seen two metres shaved off the height of the building, reducing it from 26 metres to 24 metres but still containing 150 bedrooms.

Fascia detail has been removed and a first floor wrought iron balcony facing Talbot Square has been re-introduced.

The top floor is now within the roof space to reduce the bulk of the building.

There is still no off-street car parking provided but planners say there is enough existing car parking to accommodate traffic generated by the development.

A report to the committee says the scheme represents “a good opportunity to bring this disused site which has been vacant for seven years back into beneficial use.”

It adds: “Whilst the scale is large, the nature of the site and the fact this is a triangular site at the junction of two roads facing onto Talbot Square and the Promenade, means it can support a taller building than other more constrained sites within the conservation area.”

In June Premier Inn held a public consultation event on its plans with feedback showing 92 per cent of respondents approved of the new designs.